In late 2001, several United States postal offices and other buildings were contaminated with Bacillus anthracis spores (anthrax) along the eastern United States, resulting in anthrax infection and death among several individuals. This incident was quite costly, not only in terms of the health-related impact, but also in the required decontamination efforts. Cleanup following the anthrax contamination proved to be difficult, labor intensive, and expensive. As this threat still exists, there exists a need to detect biological contaminants within the postal packages or other containers.
Detection of biohazards in the mail for culture or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis requires collection of a sample. Because biological contaminants such as anthrax can be easily carried in the air, aerosolization is an effective way to stir up a sample for collection using a dry filter. Ultimately, however, current biological test systems, such as the PCR test unit made by Cepheid (Sunnyvale, Calif.), require wet samples to detect the existence of certain biological contaminants including anthrax. For analysis, it is therefore necessary to hydrate the dry filter sample and transfer it to the analysis system. However, existing wet sample collectors are expensive and the collection efficiency is low.
Thus, it is advantageous and desirable to provide a method and device for collecting dry biological contaminants and hydrating the collected samples for transfer.